A review by bzliz
The Hunting Moon by Susan Dennard

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Unfortunately this falls into the Book 2 curse for me. It picks up almost immediately after the events of the first book and so much feels like complete filler of Winnie whining about how people were treating her family like garbage until recently and now they treat her like a celebrity after her most recent brush with death. She also spends a lot of time reminding herself she has friends she can lean on, then not leaning on them. The few scenes we get of Winnie with her new friends were great and truly felt like girlhood to me. 

The werewolf’s identity reveal was lackluster because it was super obvious to anyone paying even just 50% attention to the previous book. The revelations about the Whisperer were much more interesting and I wish Winnie had spent more time diving into that lore. Without that twist, I would’ve firmly rated this somewhere in the 2 star range. 

The third book isn’t out yet so maybe there will be a robust plot but I’m not holding my breath for it either. I’m pretty sure this could have been a duology and been stronger for it. There simply isn’t enough going on outside of Winnie’s teenage mood swings to justify three books.
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